1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a seat belt retaining device for an automotive vehicle or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The tendency toward higher speeds of automotive vehicles has come to require seat occupants to wear seat belts. It is usually the practice to manually operate the seat belt each time one gets into and out of the vehicle, but it has recently become desirable to mount a passive device which automatically fastens or releases the belt in response to the opening or closing of a door or to entering and leaving the seat to eliminate the trouble to manually operate the seat belt. Such passive devices, however, typically have suffered from a disadvantage that when an impact is exerted on the vehicle by collision or overturning of the vehicle or when a sudden acceleration or deceleration is applied to the vehicle, the seat occupant maybe thrown out of the vehicle due to the opening of the door and consequent releasing of the belt as a result of the shock of collision or the like. It may occur to mind to provide the belt moving mechanism with an emergency locking device to prevent the belt from being loosened during such impacts, but if this device is operatively associated with a door latch, it could slip out when the door is opened by accident. If the device is made independent of the door latch, the door cannot be opened from outside when locked.